VoxTalks Economics

VoxTalks Economics comes from CEPR (the Centre for Economic Policy Research), which makes it one of the few podcasts where you are hearing directly from the researchers doing the work, not journalists summarizing it. Host Tim Phillips has a real talent for keeping academic conversations accessible without dumbing them down. Episodes typically run 15 to 30 minutes -- compact enough to fit into a commute but substantial enough to actually learn something. The show has built up a catalog of over 440 episodes covering everything from trade policy and labor markets to financial regulation and development economics. Recent episodes have tackled sanctions policy, the Ukrainian wartime economy, cryptocurrency regulation, and the economic fallout of foreign aid cuts. What sets VoxTalks apart from other economics podcasts is its direct pipeline to working papers and fresh research. Guests are not promoting books or rehashing old ideas -- they are presenting findings that sometimes have not even been published yet. The European perspective is another distinguishing feature. Most popular economics podcasts default to a US-centric view, but VoxTalks regularly covers ECB policy, EU trade dynamics, and emerging market issues with genuine depth. Phillips keeps things moving and knows when to push back on jargon. At 4.6 stars, the show has a small but devoted following that skews toward people who actually work in economics or policy. It is not flashy, but the signal-to-noise ratio is exceptionally high.